Part five of our weekly 50th anniversary series charting the events of Carlisle United’s 1974/75 top-flight season.
What do you do when your team has just risen to the top of the entire Football League, and that team is, remarkably, Carlisle United?
You move heaven and earth to watch them…even if that means interrupting your honeymoon.
That was the case when it came to Tommy Miller of Holmrook Road. His determination to be at Brunton Park for the fourth game of the Division One season featured on the Evening News & Star’s front page.
There were radios at the wedding service so fans could hear the result in Saturday’s game against Tottenham Hotspur – the 1-0 win that took Alan Ashman’s heroes to the top of the league. “He is determined not to miss any more matches, so tonight he is leaving Susan with my wife, Marie, while we go to the match,” said Tommy’s friend, Steve Hart.
One hopes Susan understood – for this was not just any old game. United’s meeting with Middlesbrough came at the very highest point in the club’s history. Three victories, without a single goal conceded, had Carlisle in dream land…and anticipating a crammed Brunton Park for game number four.
Anticipation for the Boro game led police to warn fans to use car parks in the city and walk to the ground, rather than drive to Brunton Park’s close surroundings. “You can’t put a quart in a pint pot, and if you get crowds of between 15,000 and 20,000 you’re bound to get delays,” said a force spokesman.
“People nowadays just don’t want to walk anywhere.”
Officers also said there would be a “firm line” against any crowd trouble, and if all this sounded a little sober given what United were achieving, here was manager Ashman to set the footballing scene.
“We are top of the First Division and Middlesbrough are tough opposition,” he said. Left-back John Gorman, with an ankle injury, passed a fitness test before the visit of Jack Charlton’s Boro, and took Tot Winstanley’s place in the back four.
Some 18,473 packed into United’s ground for the midweek showdown. Beforehand, special presentations were made to keeper Allan Ross and midfielder Chris Balderstone in recognition of the duo reaching 350 appearances for the club.
They received supporters’ club trophies, and then got down to business against the Boro.
It soon became clear that the party was about to be interrupted by a strong and pragmatic visiting side. In the first minute, Alan Foggon slipped through United’s defence but finished weakly.
By the second minute, the warning had not been heeded, for Middlesbrough duly took an early lead. David Armstrong received the ball 18 yards from goal and drove a low right-footed shot past Ross.
It was an immediate advantage for Charlton’s men, and they looked to safeguard it by frustrating the life out of Carlisle. They contained the Blues with a well-drilled defensive style, occasionally counter-attacking when United gave up possession.
The Cumbrians did not look as defensively secure themselves as they had in previous games, although an equaliser looked likely shortly before half-time when the composed Balderstone found space to curl the ball in, and Les O’Neill, arriving onto a rebound, drove the ball against a defender when a goal seemed certain.
O’Neill, with three goals from the first two games, found that his luck was out this time. After the break he did all he could to pull United back into things, but found Boro keeper Jim Platt a defiant foe. O’Neill and Ray Train battled on in midfield but Carlisle’s attacking grew predictable, whether through their more inventive football or longer stuff for Hugh McIlmoyle and Joe Laidlaw to chase.
The Boro barrier across the edge of their box was firm, and late half-chances for Gorman and McIlmoyle failed to work Platt. It ended 1-0 to Charlton’s men, a first top-flight defeat for the Cumbrians, checking their astonishing early march.
Ashman, needless to say, kept things in perspective. “There’s still only a tiny fraction of the season gone,” he said. “There are no complaints about the result. We played well and it was a good game.
“We have got six points from the first four games, and had a taste of what it feels like at the top of the First Division. Just as we didn’t get carried away by the three wins, there’s no talk of the bubble having burst just because we have lost a match.”
United then went to Leicester City and got back on the horse to an extent with a 1-1 draw. In the tenth minute, McIlmoyle scored the first goal of his third spell with a close-range finish from Laidlaw’s pass.
From there, Carlisle appeared to be handling the Foxes’ threat, including that posed by Frank Worthington, but squandered the chance to double their lead when Laidlaw was tripped in the box and Balderstone hit the post from the penalty.
United were unable to extend their lead despite McIlmoyle’s best efforts against his former club…and were punished five minutes from time, when Peter Carr brought down Len Glover in the area. Worthington sent Ross the wrong way, and the ruthless nature of the First Division was clear to Carlisle, even amid their still positive start. Their precious time at the pinnacle was already over.
Read last week's 1974/75 feature HERE
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